New England Aquarium Discount Tickets

No visit to Boston would be complete without a stop in at the New England Aquarium. Located right on Boston harbor, the aquarium has been undergoing a massive renovation that is almost complete. During the project, the New England Aquarium’s Giant Ocean Tank has undergone a top-to-bottom, 21st-century transformation. During the process, many of the animals that called the Giant Ocean Tank home were moved to the penguin exhibit and the penguins were moved off-site. Starting July 1, the penguins (and the animals in the Giant Ocean Tank) will be back and awaiting your visit!

To give a little perspective about just how important the 23-foot-deep, 40-foot-wide Giant Ocean Tank is to the New England Aquarium, consider this: The 200,000 gallon, saltwater tank is so big that it was built first and then the rest of the Aquarium was constructed around it.

NEAQ Sea Turtle

The unchallenged star of the Caribbean coral reef-themed exhibit is Myrtle the green sea turtle. Myrtle has lived at the New England Aquarium, since June of 1970 meaning that she is now in her 43rd year in Boston – she’s practically a Kennedy. There are more than 6,000 other animals to look at in the tank – including loggerhead sea turtles, barracuda, stingrays, moray eels, hundreds of colorful reef fishes and a nurse shark – and you’ll even see a human diver in there when it’s feeding time.

Although the Giant Ocean Tank is probably the biggest exhibit at the New England Aquarium, there are some other great ones that you will probably enjoy. (Don’t forget the penguins.)

New England Aquarium Penguin

The New England Aquarium’s six Amazon exhibits let you go swimming in the Amazon River and explore the Amazon rainforest without leaving Boston (or getting wet). The Amazon exhibits hold more than 4,500 gallons of water and give visitors the chance to check out exotic species like piranhas, anacondas, electric eels and colorful poison dart frogs. There are also hundreds of live plants and life-like replicas of gigantic rainforest trees.